1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a training device for rehabilitation which can be readily used for rehabilitation of a person at his home who has recovered, for instance, from heart disease. In such a training device, the load is controlled by heart rate measuring means, which is based on electro-cardio-potential, in order to maintain a relatively low target heart rate. The load is further controlled suitably in the warming-up stage and in the interval training stage according to the strength of the legs or waist of the person who has recovered from the illness by surgical operation, thereby to increase his physical strength.
2. Background of the Invention
A variety of so-called "bicycle ergometer type training devices" are commercially available in which, in response to instructions from a microcomputer built therein, the physical conditions of a person (age, weight, sex and heart rate) are inputted. There data are processed so that an optimum load value and a controlled heart rate under the load are determined. The exercise of the person (user or operator) is continuously controlled according to these data. Reference is made to Japanese Patent Applications No. 123172/1983 entitled "Method of Determining the Best Exercise Conditions", No. 123173/1983 entitled "Training Device", and No. 69922/1984 entitled "Training Device" which have been filed by the present applicant.
Of these conventional training devices, one is generally provided for a healthy person in which the load is automatically controlled so as to maintain the heart rate at a predetermined target value and therefore its target heart rate is high. Therefore, the training device is not suitable for a person who is being rehabilitated to restore the muscles of the legs and waist which been weakened by his being confined to bed with a disease. That is, with the training device, the warming up for allowing the heart rate to reach the target heart rate is considerably strenuous and abrupt for such a person. In addition, even after the heart rate has reached the target value, the load is increased. Thus, the conventional training device is unsuitable for those who need to be rehabilitated.
In almost all the conventional bicycle ergometers for healthy persons, the target heart rate is automatically set according to the statistical central values of past data which have been obtained separately according to ages and sexes. However, no such past data have been provided for those who have recovered from heart disease and are to be rehabilitated. Accordingly, depending on the conventional training device in which such past data are automatically set, it is impossible to apply even one of the target numbers of heart rates to these person. That is, the target numbers of heart rates for these persons depend greatly on their recovery conditions or physical strengths. Accordingly, the target numbers of heart rate and the rehabilitation training frequencies for them should be specified by their personal physicians and input data such as a target heart rate for the rehabilitation training should be manually inputted. However, in the above-described training device for healthy people, various data are automatically inputted and these input data are those which have been statistically determined from the past data. Therefore, in the conventional training device, it is impossible to input the data which are exactly applicable to those people. That is, it is impossible to correctly rehabilitate them with the conventional training device.
In the case of rehabilitation of a person who has recovered from heart disease, especially in the case of rehabilitation with a training device, the training itself would be dangerous for the person if it were carried out without correctly knowing the variations of his physical conditions which may occur during the training in addition to the physical conditions. There are a few facilities which can conduct the rehabilitation by correctly detecting the variations of physical conditions of a person which may occur during the exercise. Examples of such facilities are hospitals and rehabilitation centers where doctors are controlling the training. However, only a limited number of persons can utilize such excellent facilities.
For instance in America where the rehabilitation is conducted under such desirable conditions while being controlled by doctors, almost all the training devices are those which are designed for a healthy person. Accordingly, those training devices which are utilized with training programs for healthy people, are converted into ones for rehabilitation.
In the rehabilitation which is conducted with such a training device for those who have recovered from heart disease, the rehabilitation program is obtained merely by rearranging the training program provided for healthy people. For instance, in the case of the bicycle ergometer type training device, a target heart rate is determined in advance and the ergometer load increasing rate is so arranged that the heart rate of a rehabilitating person being trained reaches the target heart rate more slowly than those of a healthy person. Therefore, the training program thus rearranged may be useful for the rehabilitation training in which the heart rate of a person being trained reaches the target value only slowly. On the other hand, the fatigue of the muscles of the legs and the waist depends greatly on the physical strengths of persons to be rehabilitated. For instance, even though the heart rate is increasing slowly according to the aforementioned load increasing rate, i.e., it is ideally reaching the target value, sometimes the fatigue of the muscles of the legs and the waist increases so much that the training cannot be satisfactorily continued.
However, the inventors believe that it is no exaggeration to say that the training device for rehabilitation of a person who has recovered from heart disease in which the above-described difficulties have been eliminated has never been proposed in the art. There has been a strong demand for the quick development of a training device used only for rehabilitation of such persons.